jasperket/clanki

An MCP server that enables AI assistants like Claude to interact with Anki flashcard decks through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
## Features
Create and manage Anki decks
Create basic notes with front/back content
Create cloze notes
Create many notes at once in a single request
Attach images and audio from URLs - automatically downloaded and embedded
HTML formatting support in note fields
Update existing notes and cloze deletions
Add and manage tags
Search for notes with Anki's query syntax
Delete notes permanently
View deck contents and note information
Full integration with AnkiConnect
## Prerequisites
Anki installed and running
AnkiConnect plugin installed in Anki
Node.js 16 or higher
## Installation
1. Clone this repository:
bash
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/clanki.git
cd clanki
2. Install dependencies:
bash
npm install
3. Build the project:
bash
npm run build
## Setup
1. Make sure Anki is running and the AnkiConnect plugin is installed and enabled.
2. Note the absolute path to build/index.js in your clanki checkout. Every
client below needs it, and none of them accept a relative path — they do not
run from your project directory, so ./build/index.js will not resolve.
bash
# from the clanki directory
node -e "console.log(require('path').resolve('build/index.js'))"
On Windows this prints backslashes. They are fine as-is for the two CLI
commands below, but must be doubled or swapped for forward slashes if you
paste the path into a JSON config — see the Claude Desktop note.
3. Register the server with your client, using one of the sections below.
4. Verify the server can reach Anki. With Anki running:
bash
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8765 -d "{\"action\":\"version\",\"version\":6}"
A working setup replies {"result": 6, "error": null}. If it does not, see
docs/troubleshooting.md — connection failures are by
far the most common problem, and AnkiConnect's default configuration needs no
changes.
### Claude Desktop
Edit claudedesktopconfig.json:
| Platform | Location |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claudedesktopconfig.json |
| Windows | %APPDATA%\Claude\claudedesktopconfig.json |
| Linux | ~/.config/Claude/claudedesktopconfig.json |
json
"mcpServers": {
"clanki": {
"command": "node",
"args": ["/absolute/path/to/clanki/build/index.js"]
Replace /absolute/path/to/clanki with the actual path to your clanki
installation. On Windows, write the path with either forward slashes or escaped
backslashes (C:\\Users\\you\\clanki\\build\\index.js) — a single backslash is
an escape character in JSON and will not parse.
Restart Claude Desktop afterwards; it reads the config only at startup.
### Claude Code
bash
claude mcp add clanki -- node /absolute/path/to/clanki/build/index.js
The -- is required. It marks the end of claude mcp add's own options, so
everything after it is treated as the command to launch. Without it the
arguments are parsed as options to claude mcp add itself and you get a broken
entry rather than an error.
By default this registers the server for you in the current project only
(--scope local). Two other scopes are available:
| Scope | What it does |
| --scope local | You, in this project only. The default. |